5 Things You Learned in School That Are TOTAL Lies

For most of us, we have spent a great deal of our lives in school.
From the awkward interactions we had in kindergarten to the carefree life we enjoyed in college,
our education is one of the cornerstones of our character and what has shaped our view
of the world around us.
But what if there are things that were taught to us that were absolutely wrong?
Could it be that we have been spending out adult lives believing things that aren’t
necessarily true?
What if the earth REALLY is flat?
Did Christopher Columbus actually discover America?
Today we set your minds to rest and clear up a few things with the top 10 things you
were taught in school that were completely wrong.
Number Five: Spin it round and round It’s a long held belief that Christopher
Columbus was the man who proved to the world that the earth is round.
Back in school we were taught that in 1492, Christopher Columbus was able to convince
the monarchy of Spain and the Catholic Church to fund his expedition to East Asia and prove
his point that the earth was a sphere and not a disc floating around space.
He was given permission and funding by both the Church and the monarchy only because they
believed that Columbus would fail spectacularly and fall of the edge of the earth.
Columbus, however, did not fail his expedition nor did he fall off the edge into oblivion,
but instead was able to sail into the Americas and prove his point.
The truth about this story is actually far different.
While the medieval theory of a flat earth is as true as it shall ever be, the claims
that Columbus had a feud with the Spanish monarchy and the church to disprove the said
theory was false.
Christopher Columbus was, inarguably, a great navigator.
His arguments with Spain and the Pope are for different reasons.
However, the story that he proved that the earth was round was false.
The theory that the earth was round was proposed by the Greek philosopher Pythagoras, 2000
years before Columbus was born and Spain existed.
If Columbus’ navigational records and paths are to be observed, you would notice that
his calculations – as well as navigational techniques at that time – were based on
the fact that the earth was a sphere.
It was from Washington Irving that the myth about Columbus originated.
Irving, a writer, put together a novel about Columbus in 1848.
It was entirely fictional but, somehow, some elements of the story managed to make their
way into textbooks.
How this may have been overlooked is a mystery.
Also, though Columbus is credited in many history books as the man who discovered America,
it was a Viking name Leif Erikson who beat him to the chase in 1000 AD.
Number Four: Karma Chameleon Ask anyone why a chameleon changes its colors
and you are sure to get the answer that it’s for camouflage.
In the animal kingdom, mimicry and camouflage is an essential tool for adapting to an environment
and avoiding predators.
There are several insects that appear to be like twigs or plants and there are sea creatures
that are heavily camouflaged as either coral or rocks like the stone fish.
Camouflage is not only a tool to evade potential predators; it is also used by some predators
to lure their next dinner.
For example, the Praying Mantis can perfectly camouflage itself in a tree and appear to
be a leaf on a twig, patiently waiting for a small animal or insect to stray into its
direction.
The changing of skin color also is used by animals as an early warning system to would-be
predators to back off.
You can say that their moods also affect the color they choose to display.
Marine animals like several species of Octopi, squids, and other cephalopods are known to
have extravagant displays of colors when threatened, excited, or agitated.
In the case of the chameleon, we are led to believe in our science classes that the main
reason for a chameleon to change its skin color is to hide from predators; and we don’t
blame the little guy if he needs to hide from larger carnivores and we have seen this characteristic
in action, albeit in cartoons.
Although there is a little truth to this myth, the purpose of a chameleon’s changing color
is to regulate its body temperature.
As we all know, chameleons are reptiles.
Like lizards, crocodiles, and turtles, reptiles are cold-blooded animals meaning that they
cannot regulate their body temperature as mammals do.
With a slight change in temperature, reptiles can be rapidly susceptible to heat stroke
or hypothermia.
That is why crocodiles submerge themselves in water during a heat wave.
As for chameleons, since they are more of a tree-dwelling variety of reptile, they’re
defense against the sudden rise or drop of temperature in the environment is their skin
color.
In order to regulate their body heat they shift colors accordingly.
In a nutshell, on a cold day, chameleons opt for a darker shade of skin color to absorb
heat and a lighter hue to cool their bodies down.
Number Three: Whose Bright Idea Was it Anyway?
Thomas Edison is hailed as one of the world’s most brilliant inventors and scientists.
He has been the inspiration of many students when it comes to putting something together
for their school’s science fair.
Who has not been taught in science class about the light bulb?
And who has not been taught about the life of Thomas Edison and just how much of a stand-up
guy he is.
Among his many accomplishments was the supposed invention of the light bulb.
A revolutionary invention, the lightbulb has been extremely useful in all aspects of life
and our science and history teachers never fail to remind us of this great contribution
to modern society by Edison.
Although if we manage to look behind the curtains and see what really goes behind the stage,
we would find out the hard truth that Thomas Edison was not the real inventor of the lightbulb.
Throughout, what we can only assume is, the complicated but colourful history of scientific
inventions and patent licensing, there have been at least 22 other individuals who have
experimented with incandescent light.
One of these was Edison’s supposed rival, Nikola Tesla.
A story goes that Edison and Tesla were at each other’s throats not only for the credit
of the lightbulb’s invention, but also with so many other inventions.
Accusations of plagiarism and theft were tossed and hurled at each other’s camps, a feud
that – to this day – lives in infamy.
Whoever may have been the first man to invent the lightbulb might be truly lost to history.
What is true - at least one of the versions of a story - is the reason why Edison was
assumed to be the lightbulb’s inventor.
In a very slick and genius move, Thomas Edison bought the patent for an incandescent bulb
from the widow of one Heinrich Goebel.
Unfortunately, this story is yet to be confirmed by historians because other, similar stories
exist concerning the two men.
One of which narrates that Goebel never patented his incandescent bulb and that Edison had
his own design of bulbs that he was able to patent before anyone else.
Whatever version of this story, there still has no clear light to be shed on this still
unanswered question of who really invented the lightbulb.
Number Two: A Monkey’s Uncle Evolution.
The acceptance of it is already a point of contention depending on where you are located
or what value system your school upholds.
But despite all this, we are – in one way or another – aware of Charles Darwin’s
theory of evolution; more specifically that mankind were descended from apes.
In his controversial book, The Origin of Species, Charles Darwin outlines several theories that
revolve around the development and evolution of certain species of birds and mammals and
how their environment can actually affect their development.
While most of the theories he has written down have been widely accepted by the Victorian
community at the time of its publication, the idea that mankind having descended from
apes struck a sensitive cord most especially with the church.
For a time The Origin of Species was banned until the world slowly began to open up to
the advances of modern science and biology.
But that’s just it.
The extent of what many of us were taught and many of us assume to know about mankind’s
evolution begins and end with “man descended from apes”.
This, however, begs the question that if man did evolve from apes, then why are there primates
like apes and chimps hanging around?
While our Number Two spot is neither taught wrong or otherwise, it is the lack of information
about the subject that helped it become a misunderstood subject.
In Darwin’s theory, he proposes that man and ape share the same bloodline.
During the millennia of man and ape’s evolution, somehow, somewhere along the way, the bloodline
split into two different branches where one evolved into humans and the other into the
apes and primates that we know of today.
And today, archaeologists and scientists keep discovering and unearthing fossils that bring
us closer to the so-called missing link between man and ape with the fossil discovered in
the 1960s called “Lucy”.
Number One: Not So Honest Abe Four score and so many years ago, Abraham
Lincoln became one of our favorite presidents.
Whether it’s the tall hat or the funny beard, back when we were kids dressing up for President’s
Day at school, we found ourselves in a veritable sea of Honest Abes with a few Teddy Roosevelts
and Washingtons thrown into the mix.
And why should we not be proud to emulate good ol’ Abe Lincoln?
He was the man who frees the slaves from their bondage during his time.
He was practically the poster-boy of Civil Rights.
He was romanticized by American historians and school teachers as the Great Emancipator.
However, this is not all true.
While indeed, Abraham Lincoln did emancipate the slaves when he signed the Emancipation
Proclamation in 1862, he struggled hard with conflicting and ambiguous views on slavery.
The country was still grappling with political unrest and Lincoln’s decision to sign the
Proclamation was politically motivated and not due to any kind of support for the abolition
of slavery.
What he wanted was to make the Union stronger at a time when the Confederate states were
waging war against the Union.
And in his own words, Lincoln stated that, “ If I could save the Union without freeing
any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it;
and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.
What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the
Union.”
In the end, the Emancipation Proclamation was not a precursor to the civil rights movement
or racial equality.
It was a wartime decision that had to be made at the risk of breaking the country apart
after years of civil war.
That concludes today’s video!
It gives you something to think about, doesn’t it?
What other things do you think were taught in school that were completely wrong?
Personally, I think that whole Man on the Moon thing really needs some looking into,
but that’s just my opinion.
Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below and hit that subscribe button
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5 Things You Learned in School That Are TOTAL Lies

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